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250 Great British people and what made them famous
Who was Samuel Taylor Coleridge?
Poet, Philosopher, and Critic.
Date and Place of Birth:
21st October 1772, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, England.
Family Background:
Tenth and youngest child of the local vicar and
his second wife.
Education:
Henry the Eighth Free Grammar School, Ottery
St Mary. Christ's Hospital. Jesus College Cambridge (ran away to
join the Dragoons under the alias of Silas Tomkyne Comberbache and
had to be bought out by his brothers).
Chronology/Biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
1781: (6th October)
Death of his father.
1782: Goes to Christ's
Hospital School in London and meets his lifelong friend Charles
Lamb.
1791: Coleridge
enters Jesus College, Cambridge.
1793: (2nd December)
Enlists in the 15th Light Dragoons as Silas Tomkyn Comberbache.
1794: Returns to
Cambridge after being bought out of the army by his disgusted brothers.
(June) first meets Robert Southey and
they plan a theory of Pantisocracy where all members of a community
are given specific tasks. They plan to emigrate to North America
and set up their group there. (July) His first poems are published
in the London newspaper the "Morning Chronicle". Works
on and publishes a play entitled "The Fall of Robespierre".
(December) Leaves Cambridge without completing his degree and goes
on a tour of Wales.
1795: To earn some
money Coleridge delivers a series of lectures at Bristol on politics,
history, religion and the slave trade. Probably sees William Wordsworth
for the first time. Is introduced to the Fricker sisters by Southey
who marries Edith. Coleridge moves to Clevedon in Somerset after
his marriage to Sarah.
1796: (March to
May) Produces the radical political and philosophical journal called
"The Watchman". (16th April ) Publishes "Poems on
Various Subjects". (19th September) Birth of his son Hartley.
(31st December) Family move to a small cottage at Nether Stowey
in Somerset.
Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey, Somerset where the early
major poems were written
(© Anthony Blagg)
1797: (5th June)
First proper meeting with William Wordsworth
and his sister Dorothy. (July) Wordsworth
and Lamb visit Coleridge in Nether Stowey
but due to an accident with some scalding milk he cannot go out
walking with them and this produces the poem "This Lime Tree
Bower My Prison." (14th July) Wordsworth and his sister rent
Alfoxden House nearby. (13th November) Begins writing "The
Ancient Mariner". Taken on as a writer for the "Morning
Post". (December) Some of Coleridge's poetry is published in
the "Morning Post". Finishes first section of "Christabel"
and writes his play "Osorio".
Statue of the Ancient Mariner in Watchet Harbour, Somerset
from where the Mariner was said to have set sail.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1798: Gives sermons
at the Unitarian Church in Shrewsbury as he is intent on taking
up a life of religion, but receives a life annuity of £150
from Tom Wedgwood (son of Sir Josiah Wedgwood)
to dedicate himself to poetry. Meets William Hazlitt
for the first time. (February) Writes "Frost at Midnight".
(March) Completes "The Ancient Mariner." (14th May) Son
Berkeley is born (named after the famous Irish Philosopher George
Berkeley). Writes "Kubla Khan"
after awaking from an opium induced dream. (He needed to take opium
in the commonly available liquid form laudanum for stomach and other
pains). Famously the poem was not completed as he was disturbed
at Ash Farm by "a person on business from Porlock". (18th
September) Wordsworth and Coleridge finally publish their joint
venture the "Lyrical Ballads". (Wordsworth
was not happy to see "The Ancient Mariner" included).
(19th September) He leaves for Germany on a study tour with the
Wordsworths hoping to increase his knowledge of language and philosophy.
The Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury where Coleridge gave a
lecture
and toyed with the idea of joining the church
(© Anthony Blagg)
1799: (12th February)
Coleridge studies at the University of Gottingen. (April) News reaches
him from his good friend in Nether Stowey, Tom Poole, about the
death of his son Berkeley (July) Returns to England. (October) Experiments
with the effects of Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas) with Humphrey Davy
in Bristol. (26th October) Meets Sara Hutchinson for the first time
in the Lake District. (November) Begins writing political essays
for the "Morning Post". Stays with the Godwins
at 29 The Polygon, London. (December) The Wordsworths move to Dove
Cottage, Grasmere in the Lake District.
Dove Cottage, Grasmere, Cumbria. Home to the Wordsworth's
and later De Quincey.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1800: Begins translating
Schiller's "Wallenstein" whilst staying with Charles Lamb
and his sister. (24th July) The Coleridge family all move to Greta
Hall in Keswick. (14th September) Birth of his son Derwent. (September)
Finishes "Christabel" (December) Has a prolonged illness
including rheumatic fever and this may well be the time that he
became addicted to the painkiller opium.
1801: New edition
of the "Lyrical Ballads" with Wordsworth's
Preface.
1802: Attends Humphrey
Davy's lectures at the Royal Institution.
(June) Publishes "Poems". (November) Tours Wales with
Tom and Sally Wedgwood. Southey Family moves in to Greta Hall in
Keswick with Sarah Coleridge (Southey's
wife's sister). (23rd December) Daughter Sara is born.
Greta Hall, Main Street, Keswick, Cumbria. Coleridge's study
is behind the first floor window on the far left.
This is one of the great literary houses of Britain. Besides being
the family home of the Coleridges and Southeys, visitors included
Wordsworth, Byron,
Keats, Shelley,
Walter Scott , De
Quincey, John Stuart Mill, Charles
Lamb, John Ruskin, Humphrey
Davy, William Hazlitt and William
Wilberforce amongst others.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1803: (August) Tours
Scotland with the Wordsworths.
1804: (January)
ill once more in Grasmere and then returns to London. (July) Moves
to Malta for the good of his health and becomes undersecretary to
Alexander Ball, the British High Commissioner.
1805: (18th January)
Coleridge is appointed Acting Public Secretary in Malta and helps
write laws and statutes for the country. (21st September) Leaves
Malta and tours Naples, Rome , Florence, Pisa and Leghorn.
The Presidential Palace in Valletta, Malta. Formerly the
Grand Master's Palace of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem and
then the seat of Governor of the Island under British Rule.
Coleridge worked here as Public Secretary second in command to the
Governor.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1806: (17th August)
Returns to England although still not in good health. Stays with
the Godwins at 29 The Polygon, London.
Delivers a series of lectures on Shakespeare at the Corporation
Hall in Fetter Lane London. Lord Byron is
in the audience as well as William Godwin
and his young daughter Mary (later to become
Mary Shelley. (November) Arrives
back at Greta Hall. (December) Leaves to live with Wordsworth and
his wife Mary (Also Dorothy and Mary's sister Sara Hutchinson) in
Coleorton.
1807: (January)
Coleridge hears Wordsworth read "The
Prelude". (August) Meets Thomas de Quincey
in Bristol.
1808: (January)
Lives in the Courier Building in the Strand, London. Starts lecturing
on poetry and the principles of taste at the Royal Institution.
Ill again and goes to live with the Wordsworths at Allen Bank in
Grasmere, Cumbria.
1809: (August) Produces
"The Friend" a political and philosophical periodical.
1810: (March) Sarah
Hutchinson (known to him as Asra) tells him she has never loved
him. (October) He moves to London. and has a breach with the Wordsworths
over a statement by Montague about Wordsworth's opinion of his work.
1811: "Table
Talk" first written down by his nephew John Taylor Coleridge
in London as he is known as a voracious and entertaining speaker.
(November) Begins a series of lectures on Shakespeare
and Milton at Scot's Corporation Hall for
the London Philosophical Society.
1812: (February)
His last visit to the Lake District. (April) Goes to live with the
Morgans. (May) Begins a series of lectures on drama at Willis's
Rooms, London. Charles Lamb helps heal the
rift with Wordsworth. (October) Lectures
on Shakespeare and education at Bristol
and Milton in Clifton. His annuity from
the Wedgwoods is reduced to £75. (November) Lectures on Belles
Lettres, Shakespeare and education at the Surrey Institution.
1813: (23rd January)
Beginning of the successful run of his play "Remorse"
at Drury Lane, London. (October) Lectures in Bristol on Milton,
Cervantes, taste, The French Revolution, Napoleon, etc.
1814: (May) Is looked
after by Doctor Daniel for addiction and suicidal depression. (August)
"Remorse" is performed in Bristol. (September) Publishes
essays in the "Courier" newspaper.
1815: Coleridge
moves with the Morgans to Calne in Wiltshire. (June) "Remorse"
produced in Calne. (July) writes the "Biographia Literaria".
1816: (February)
Receives grants from the Literary Fund and from Lord Byron.
(16th April) Enters the house of Doctor James Gillman and his wife
in Highgate who try to control his addiction. (November) Writes
"Theory of Life."
1817: (April) "Remorse"
is performed again in London.
1818: (January)
Lectures in London on judgment, culture, european literature, etc.
(December) Lectures on the history of philosophy, Shakespeare,
Milton, Dante, Spenser
and Cervantes.
1819: (11th April)
Meets John Keats. Writes occasional articles
for Blackwood's Magazine.
1822: Series of
regular Thursday evening monologues begin. (November) Visited in
Highgate by his wife and daughter. (29th December) His nephew H.N.
Coleridge starts recording his "Table Talk".
1823: Coleridge
begins "Youth and Age."
1824: Elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature. (June) Meets Thomas
Carlyle.
1825: Lectures on
Aechylus's "Prometheus" at the Royal Society of Literature.
(May) Derwent Coleridge ordained as a clergyman.
1827: (May) Seriously
ill.
1828: (April) Meets
James Fennimore Cooper. (June) tours the Netherlands and the Rhineland
with Wordsworth and his daughter Dora.
1829: (3rd September)
Daughter Sara marries her cousin H.N. Coleridge.
1831: Visited by
the philosopher John Stuart Mill. (September)
Attends meetings of the British Association.
1833: (June) Coleridge
visits Cambridge for the British Association meetings. (5th August)
Visited by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Written Works:
- 1794: "The
Fall of Robespierre" (with Southey).
"Monody on the Death of Chatterton".
- 1796:
"Poems on Various Subjects". started the political journal
"The Watchman".
- 1797: Wrote "Osorio",
which was staged in 1813 as "Remorse". "Christabel,
Part 1".
- 1798:
"Frost at Midnight". "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
(As part of Lyrical Ballads with Wordsworth)
"Kubla Khan". "Fears in Solitude". "France:
An Ode". "The Nightingale".
- 1800: "Poems
- New Edition of Lyrical Ballads" with Wordsworth.
- 1803:
"Lyrical Ballads" (Third Edition).
- 1812: "Omniana"
(with Southey).
- 1813:
"Remorse".
- 1816: "The
Statesman's Manual". "A Lay Sermon". "Christabel".
"Kubla Khan" and "The Pains of Sleep".
- 1817: "Biographia
Literaria". "Sybilline Leaves".
- 1818: "A
Treatise on Method".
- 1825:
"Aids to Reflection".
- 1828:
"Work Without Hope".
- 1830: "On
the Constitution of the Church and State". "The Devil's
Walk".
- (1835):
"Specimens of Table Talk".
- (1836):
"Literary Remains".
- (1840):
"Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit".
- (1848): "Theory
of Life".
- (1849):
"Notes and Lectures and Some of the old dramatists".
- (1850):
"Essays on his Own Times".
- (1894):
"Anima Poetae". "Letters".
Marriage:
4th October 1795 to Sarah Fricker at St. Mary
Redcliffe, Bristol. (The same church where the manuscript of Chatterton’s
"Rowley" had been found. Sarah was the sister of Edith
Fricker who became the wife of Coleridge’s Friend Robert
Southey.
Date and Place of Death:
25th July 1834, Highgate, London.
Age at Death:
61.
Site of Grave:
Monument in the aisle of St. Michael’s
Church, Highgate, London, England.
(where Coleridge was reburied on 6th June
1961 after his first location, near the chapel buildings of Highgate
School, became derelict. John Masefield
then poet Laureate was at the ceremony).
St Michael's Church Highgate, London
where Coleridge was reburied
(© Anthony Blagg)
Places of Interest:
AVON:
Bristol
Cleveden
CUMBRIA:
Dove Cottage and Museum, Grasmere. (Wordsworth
Trust).
Greta Hall, Keswick. Now a private family home
of the musician Scott Ligertwood and his partner Jeronime Palmer,
however parts of the house and buildings are available for holiday
let, including the Coleridge wing - see their website
for details) Coleridge lived here with Southey
and Sarah Coleridge.
DEVON:
Lynton and Lynmouth
The Valley of Rocks, Lynton, Devon. (Coleridge walked from Stowey
along the Coast many times with Wordsworth
and other friends).
Valley of Rocks above Lynton, North Devon.
Coleridge and Wordsworth were to walk
here many times with other notables such as Southey
and Davy.
Shelley also found it fascinating.
(© Anthony Blagg)
LONDON:
National Portrait Gallery.
SHROPSHIRE:
Unitarian Church, Shrewsbury.
SOMERSET:
Ash Farm, near Porlock, (Private residence).
(Where "Kubla Khan" was conceived).
Coleridge Cottage, 35 Lime Street, Nether Stowey,
Near Bridgewater. (National Trust).
Culbone Church, above Porlock.
Porlock and Porlock Weir.
Quantock Hills. (Coleridge walked amongst these
hills frequently with William and Dorothy
Wordsworth.
Watchet. (Port said to be inspiration for "Rime
of the Ancient Mariner"). A statue of the Ancient Mariner Sculpted
by Alan B Herriot of Penicuik Scotland was unveiled on the Harbourside
in 2003.
MALTA:
The Presidential Palace and the Casino Maltese,
Valletta
Further Information:
Friends of Coleridge
c/o David Cheshire
7 Walls Road
Bath
BA7 3AN
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